Alexei chuckled. “Pregnancy does usually lead to babies,” he said. “I can tell you this fact based on my years of experience.”
“Thank goodness I have you to explain these things to me,” Bethany said. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes bright, and Alexei tried to remember it was nothing to do with him and everything to do with a pregnant dog. No one should be that attractive at a time like this. It was damned distracting.
Lulu barked at him and he laughed.
“What did she say?” Bethany asked. Then, “I still can’t believe you can talk to dogs.”
“Better than I can talk to women, sometimes,” he muttered under his breath. “She said, wait, let me make sure I get this right, okay, she said… OW.”
“Oh, poor baby.” Bethany stroked Lulu’s ears, just the way the dog liked it. “I wish there was something we could do.”
Alexei watched the dog’s sides heave. “I think you can say hello to the first puppy,” he said, as a slippery mass slid out onto the sheets.
Bethany peered at it doubtfully. “That’s a puppy?”
Lulu twisted around and licked the sack off and then started to eat the afterbirth.
“Ugh,” Bethany said. Then leaning in to get a closer look at the baby, “Oh. Oh, Alexei, look at it. It’s so tiny.”
The small, squirming creature made its way unerringly to one of Lulu’s teats and started sucking. Bethany turned away to blow her nose and Alexei pretended not to be affected, although he leaned in to give Lulu a big kiss.
“Nice job, mama. Now only another six or seven to go.”
“Six or seven more?” Bethany said. She looked down as another puppy came into view. “Oh, good.” But she sounded a little faint.
*
By two AM, it was all over. Lulu was resting as comfortably as possible, given that she’d just given birth to eight puppies. The puppies themselves were snuggled up against Lulu’s side, their little bellies distended with milk. Alexei had cleaned up the area as much as he could without disturbing the new family and he and Bethany had retreated to the living area to give mama her well-earned rest. Bethany had a large box she’d been saving that they’d move the puppies and Lulu into in the morning.
“That was amazing,” Bethany said, beaming at him happily over a small glass of whiskey as they sat on opposite ends of the couch. “Thanks so much for coming to get me. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.”
Alexei gazed at her. Fatigue from a long day showed in the tiny lines around her eyes and the slump of her shoulders, but she still seemed to fizz with pleasure over the birth of the puppies. He didn’t know how she did it. Despite everything she dealt with, most of the time she remained upbeat and positive. And beautiful, but never mind that.
“Lulu was glad to have you there,” he said. He grinned at her. “You’re her foster mother so I guess that makes you a foster grandmother to her puppies, right?”
“Shut. Up.” Bethany threw a pillow at him. “I am so not a grandmother.”
He threw it back, avoiding the glass in her hand. It wouldn’t do to spill good whiskey. “Puppy Grandma. You look pretty good, all things considered.”
Bethany narrowed her eyes at him and put the glass carefully down on the table. Then she whipped the pillow back at him, followed by the other two that had been sitting next to it. “I wouldn’t provoke me, if I were you. I’ll have you know that I was the Greater Cape Cod All State Pillow Fight Champion three years running. I seriously considered majoring in it in college.”
Alexei roared with laughter, suddenly feeling freer than he had in months. Something about the light-hearted banter reminded him of hanging out with his brothers, but instead of making him sad, the way it usually did, it just made him remember how good it had felt to goof around with them. And they weren’t nearly as cute as Bethany was.
“Don’t be so cocky,” he said. “I’ve had a lot more years to practice than you have.”
She winked at him. “Yes, but I know something you don’t know.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“I cheat,” she said, and whacked him over the head with the pillow she’d had hidden behind her back.
“Hey!” he yelled. “Who keeps extra pillows under the couch?” He threw two of them back at her.
“Former Pillow Fight Champions, obviously,” Bethany said, ducking. “You never know when you’re going to need extra ammunition.”
The next few minutes were a blur of laughter and pillows, until somehow they both ended up on the floor, with Bethany kneeling over Alexei’s prone body as he pretended to cower away from the dangerous paisley bolster she held in one hand.
Their eyes met and something shifted. Suddenly the air was heavy with potential. Alexei felt as though he couldn’t catch his breath. In the dim light from the lamp on the wall, Bethany seemed like some ethereal creature, her red hair floating around her fair-skinned pixie face, flannel shirt riding up to reveal a smooth midriff.
“I think you win,” he said. “I should have known better than to take on the champion.”
“Yes, you should have,” she said, putting down the bolster. But she sounded a little breathless too, and her eyes darkened. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to pay the penalty now.”
“And what would that be?” he asked, wondering if he should end this now, and knowing he really didn’t want to.
“A kiss, of course,” she said, as if it was nothing. But when he rose up to meet her and their lips touched, it was something. It was everything. It was as if the past year just dropped away, leaving him weightless, his heart near to bursting with some emotion he didn’t want to put a label on.
“Bethany,” he said, whispering her name as if it were some magical word that could unlock the mysteries of the universe. He ran one hand up under her shirt in the back, reveling in the feel of her smooth soft skin, pulling her closer to him. “This probably isn’t a good idea.”
“Probably not,” she whispered back. “We’re doing it anyway though, right?”
He kissed her again, harder. Hell yes.
Suddenly he wanted, no, needed to have next to him. All of her. Next to all of him.
“Are you sure?” he asked. He didn’t want to risk regrets later. Not on his part, because he couldn’t imagine any universe in which he could regret being intimate with Bethany. But he wanted to give her the chance to change her mind.
“Oh, hell yes,” she said, unconsciously mimicking his thoughts. She pulled her shirt off over her head without unbuttoning it, revealing a silky camisole, which quickly followed.
Alexei cupped her breasts in his large hands, losing what little rational thought he’d managed to hang on to. Her creamy flesh felt like silk, the pink tips inviting him to nibble and suck and lick until Bethany gasped and collapsed on top of him.